Rebbe Nachman of Brastlav tells this tale: A young man leaves his home to learn a trade. Years later, he returns to his family and shares that he has become a master in the art of menorah making. He asks his parents to invite all of the other artisans in town to come see his masterpiece — a candelabra inspired by those of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. So all the finest crafters come to view this man’s menorah. Later, the son asks his parents, “What did you think?” They reply, “We’re sorry to say all of your fellow lamp-makers told us that it was a flawed, ugly piece.” “Ah,” replies the son, “but that is the secret! Yes, they all say it was ugly, but what nobody realizes is this: Each sees a different part as ugly. Each overlooks the mistakes that he himself would make, and sees only the shortcomings of the others. “You see, I made this menorah in this way on purpose — completely out of mistakes and deficiencies — in order to demonstrate that none of us has perfection.”

In Psalm 90, the Psalmist calls to God: “You can see our concealed darkness; You can see our concealed shortcomings, in the light of Your face.” Perhaps God can see our shortcomings, but can we?

Broken-hearted to live in a society where a white man enters a black church with his gun and brutally murders nine African American souls who are studying Bible, Read the rest of this entry »

In honor of the 4th of July, we celebrate the birth of our nation when we broke the bonds of tyranny and dedicated ourselves to freedom.
During the High Holy Days we ask, “What bonds do you hope to break in your life today?”
We will discuss the prayer below from our New High Holy day prayer.

Please share your thoughts.

To Break the Bonds of anger,
To be generous of heart;
To break the bonds of shame,
To live with self-respect;

To break the bonds of envy,
To serve one another in joy;
To break the bonds of boredom,
To be attentive to all God’s gifts;

To break the bonds of fear,
To live with courage and strength;
To untie the knots of betrayal;
To love with fullness of being.

To break the bonds of loneliness,
To receive a hand of hope;
To break the bonds of self-centeredness,
To extend a hand of help;

Released from the darkness,
Our people found their freedom at the sea;
And we pray for liberation
At the dawning of this year.

For this summer’s sermons from July 3 through August 28, we’d like to incorporate your perspectives. The clergy will pose a question regarding the readings and interpretations in our new High Holy Day prayerbook, Mishkan Hanafesh at the beginning of each week and we encourage you to respond to that question by responding on the blog (rodephshalom.wordpress.com) or on Facebook (“friend” us!). Your responses will help to inform our words in the sermon for that week.

Saturday, June 20: Prayer Service in Harrisburg

Rabbi Eli Freedman will lead Shabbat morning prayer and people of faith from across the state will gather to at our State Capitol to demand a moral budget that fully funds public schools. Participants from Rodeph Shalom will be carpooling from the synagogue. Contact Rachel Thomas (rthomas@rodephshalom.org) about making arrangements for either driving or riding to Harrisburg.
10:30AM | Shabbat Service | Steps of the State Capitol
12PM | Interfaith Ceremony | Steps of the State Capitol

RS Blog is the official blog of Congregation Rodeph Shalom of Philadelphia. Rodeph Shalom is the Reform congregation in Center City Philadelphia and has been serving generations of families since 1795.